Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/329

 FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 584 305 style. Fig. 586 is a view of fig. 585 with the doors removed, showing four inside sliding tray shelves, with a deep drawer underneath for bonnets, &c. In this drawer are com- monly fixed bonnet-holders, fig. 587, and against its sides cap pins, fig. 588. Fig. 589 is a Design for a wardrobe in the Gothic style, and also differently arranged in the interior. Fig. 590 shows a view of it with the doors removed. There is an upright division in the centre, with four fixed shelves on one side, and on the other an open space, with cloak pins fixed round it for hanging gowns, coats, caps, &c., upon. It is to be remarked, that the row of pegs is continued round the inside of the door. In the bottom of this division may be a fixed or portable bonnet-holder, such as fig. 587. These wardrobes may be made of deal, and painted wainscot colour, or of any other suitable to the other furniture of the room. The price in London is from ^^3 to £5 each. 627. Chests of Draivers are the common substitute for wardrobes, but they are very far inferior to them for keeping clothes, and create a great deal of useless labour in pulling out and pushing in drawers, and perhaps in locking and unlocking them ; whereas one lock secures the whole of the wardrobe ; and, by the opening of one door, the whole of the contents are exposed to view, and the article wanted can be had with the least possible trouble. For those who prefer the old mode, we have given the Design 591, to a scale of half an inch to a foot, which represents a chest of drawers in the Gothic style. It may be constructed of common deal, painted wainscot colour, with real oak knobs. The cost in London is from £3 to £'i. A common chest of drawers may be made more useful in a small room, by having a slider to pull out, — , „ in front, from under the *"" ^^ top above the first drawer, as in fig. 592, a ; the two bottom drawers may, if re- quired, be made into one deep drawer, to hold bon- nets, &c., like the drawer in the wardrobe, fig. 586, p. 304. Knobs of the same wood as the furniture, fig. 592, b, are now genei'ally substituted, as in most other pieces of furniture, for brass. They harmonise better, and do not tarnish ; besides, the fashion is, at present, comparatively new in liOndon, and this confers on them a certain degree of factitious elegance, viz., that of novelty and fashion. 628. Tables are of numerous kinds and various forms. We shall take them in the order of kitchen tables, parlour tables, and bed- room tables. 629. Kitchen Tables ought to be strong, on account of their continual use ; and, if possible, they should be contrived to fold up, or otherwise go into little space, when not in immediate use, in order to afTord more room for carrying on the business of the kitchen. One of the most economical of kitchen tables is that formed by the kneading-trough, represented by fig. 593, to a scale of half an inch to a foot, of which a is an end view. Such tables are a good deal in use in the cottages and small farm-houses in many parts of England. The cover, which, when on the trough, serves as a table or ironing-board, either lifts off, or, being hinged, is placed so as when opened it may lean against a wall, when the trough is wanted to be used. Frequently a division is made in the centre of the trough, so that the dry flour can be kept in one compartment, and the dough made in the other. Sometimes there are three compartments, in order to keep separate two different kinds of flour or meal. The board forming the cover ought to be an inch and a half thick, and always in one piece, in order that neither dirt nor dust may drop through